Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction winner Rachel Clarke has said that the idea of literature written by artificial intelligence is the “emptiest, most vacuous, object imaginable” – and warned that the challenge lies in distinguishing which works have used it.

Author and NHS doctor Clarke, who is delivering the annual State of the Nation Lecture at Cambridge Literary Festival, won the Women’s Prize last year for The Story of a Heart – the story of how one child received a heart transplant from another. Her memoir about working in the NHS at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Breathtaking, was adapted into a drama for ITV in 2024.

Fears about the use of AI in the literary world are on the rise. Mia Ballad’s novel Shy Girl was recently pulled by publisher Hachette over accusations that it was written with artificial intelligence, while over the last few years, Amazon has been flooded with hundreds of AI-written books, ranging from fantasy fiction to self-help.

Speaking to The Independent ahead of her lecture at the Cambridge Literary Festival, Clarke said that the concern around AI is “much deeper than just ‘will this take my job?’” – and that she doesn’t think readers would ever choose to read an AI-generated book over one written by a real author.

“I think it’s about trust and authenticity and what really matters to each of us as individual human beings,” she said.

“And I think with works of art, whether literary or painting or whatever the form might be, we have a bond of trust with the artist. We believe that we are experiencing something that they have created themselves that is built on the edifice of their life.”

She added that what makes a painting by Vincent Van Gough significant is that it’s related to “his life and everything he’s suffered and endured”.

“If you strip away all of that, suddenly all you’re experiencing is the product of a very clever algorithm. How does that even constitute art at all? It’s not creative, it doesn’t stem from everything this human has experienced.

“It’s nothing. It’s just a crisp packet that doesn’t even contain any crisps. It’s the emptiest, most vacuous object imaginable – and I can’t imagine there is anybody who really wants to read a book written by a computer, even if they are unable to distinguish that book.”

Last year, a Cambridge University study found that almost half of UK novelists feared AI would displace their work – and in March, the UK Society of Authors even launched a logo to identify books written by humans instead of AI.

While the use of AI within the literary sector is on the rise, Clarke said that reading a book is “entering into a relationship with an author” and without that, she’s “not even sure I know what the point of reading is”.

“I suspect that most people feel exactly the same,” she said. “The challenge is how do we now distinguish the authentic works from the AI-generated works, particularly if we have authors who are perfectly willing to lie and say that they’ve written something when it just stems from AI. I don’t have the answer to that question but I hope that some of the very clever Silicon Valley minds are focusing on that problem.”

In Clarke’s State of the Nation Lecture on Saturday (25 April), the author will argue that there’s a crisis of care in this country, and as a nation we have become “kindwashed”, with institutions preaching performative kindness.

“Kindness and empathy are qualities that are fundamentally human and what make us the remarkable species we are,” she said. “They’re under assault from all manner of different directions – from the corporate realm that tends to judge value in terms of productivity.

“The political realm – big political narratives that are dominating the headlines at the moment are about conflict, domination, Iran, Ukraine, Lebanon, Gaza. There’s also a fundamental devaluing of care, treating it as though it’s a soft, weak, feeble, optional extra rather than something profoundly important to how we live – Elon Musk loves to trash empathy as though it’s synonymous with weakness.”

Musk said last year that empathy towards undocumented immigrants was destroying society, telling podcaster Joe Rogan: “The fundamental weakness of Western civilisation is empathy.”

The NHS doctor is urging people not to “flinch away” from other people’s suffering, adding that while it’s hard to keep on caring, “the alternative is deeply corrosive to our sense of self”.

“We need to tell stories, not only about the power of care but also what an absence of care really looks like,” she said. “Life is tough for everybody at the moment – we don’t really want to consider more of other people’s suffering but actually we need to do that. We need to discipline ourselves not to give up and not to stop caring because once we do that, our indifferent makes us part of the problem.”

Rachel Clarke is giving the State of the Nation Lecture at Cambridge Literary Festival on Saturday 25 April.

Nearly 50 years ago Sir David Attenborough was making what would become his breakthrough TV series Life on Earth when he met a gorilla called Pablo.

By 1978 the broadcaster and natural historian had already presented a range of programmes, however the series Life on Earth would establish him as the foremost TV naturalist and kickstart his profile as a national treasure.

Released in 1979, the series had taken three years to film and had cost over £1million.  Shot in 100 locations around the world, one of those was in the Volcanoes National Park in the Virunga mountains of Rwanda.

When he was aged three, Pablo came across David filming his TV show, deciding the presenter would make for the perfect place to soak up the sun and used him as a personal lounger in scenes that are still remembered by many today.

As Sir David said at the time: ‘There is more meaning and mutual understanding in exchanging a glance with a gorilla than with any other animal I know.’

‘It seems very unfair that man should have chosen the gorilla as a symbol of all that is violent and fearsome, when in fact, it is a peaceable and gentle creature.’

Decades later, and not long before his 100^th birthday, Sir David has reflected on his relationship with Pablo and the long-lasting effect their encounter had on him.

These are detailed in the new Netflix documentary A Gorilla Story: Told by David Attenborough, which has been billed as an ‘intimate documentary’ on the ‘remarkable story of his first encounter with the baby gorilla Pablo, how that gorilla grew up to be a top Silverback and how Pablo’s direct descendants are doing today’.

Directed by James Reed (who won an Oscar for My Octopus Teacher) and with Leonardo DiCaprio as an executive producer, it’s also been teased of the release that it is: ‘Packed with extraordinary gorilla behaviour never filmed before, this is a story of hope and joy.’

Since quietly being released in the past few days, the documentary has soared up the Netflix charts and is now one of the most-watched films in the UK.

Reviews have already called it ‘unmissable’ and told viewers they will be ‘overcome with awe’.

‘The actual plot of the film – and though I know it’s not a scripted drama, it almost feels like it – is so utterly engrossing…there are staggering character arcs and scenes that are both heart-warmingly tender and gut-wrenchingly tragic, including one of the most devastating betrayals you’ll see,’ Esquire wrote in its review, adding that it ‘packs an almighty punch’.

‘Attenborough’s tone is more upbeat than in some of his documentaries because the gorillas’ population has more than doubled in recent decades after poachers demolished their numbers. It is a conservation success story and a love letter to the gorilla, told beautifully by the undisputed silverback of natural history broadcasting,’ The Times declared.

‘Clearly Attenborough has no truck with nostalgia. This is the second new project he’s released in the space of a fortnight, which hints at a preference for forward momentum. But for those of us who grew up with him – which is to say all of us – this feels like one of the last chances we’ll get to sit at the feet of an adored relative,’ The Guardian added.

Meanwhile fans of Sir David shared their excitement ahead of tuning in.

‘This is going to be the best documentary of 2026,’ charleswingfield380 posted on YouTube.

‘David Attenborough is a legend. And his non-ceasing love and advocacy for our natural world should serve as an example for action and change,’ LadyDi_ATX shared.

‘I just finished watching Gorilla Story on Netflix and it is an outstanding documentary I highly recommend it. I love those powerful majestic creatures and the family dynamics they portray. Very well done David Attenborough!’ moester75 added.

In an interview with CN Traveler ahead of the documentary’s release, executive producer Alastair Fothergill reflected on how the scenes of Sir David with Pablo in Life on Earth, which he said was ‘arguably the most famous sequence in wildlife filmmaking’.

‘David believes it’s the most important sequence he has ever done. Pablo grew up to be the most successful gorilla ever in Rwanda. He died about 10 years ago, but the group that we went to film for this documentary were all his direct descendants. Once we were there, we knew we’d filmed some pretty amazing behaviour – we’ve essentially found the parallel story of the original Pablo, told by David Attenborough, nearly 50 years later,’ he shared.

When asked what he hoped viewers would take away from the film, he replied: ‘I want them to take away a real respect for an animal that most people don’t really know. And I want them to recognise that there are positive conservation stories.

‘We’re living in a world where the news is not good, particularly for the environment and the natural world. And what’s happened in Rwanda is this amazing collaboration between scientists and the government. If you’re looking at a good example of ecotourism that really has helped the animals, but also really helps the people, it’s a perfect example.’

At the time that Sir David first visited Rwanda in the 1970s, gorillas were being poached to the point of extinction, but the population has now almost fully recovered.

A Gorilla Story: Told by David Attenborough is streaming on Netflix.

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NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market is edging back from its all-time high Thursday following mixed profit reports from Tesla and other big companies. Oil prices, meanwhile, are swinging higher on continued uncertainty about what will happen next in the war with Iran.

The S&P 500 slipped 0.1% following a big rally that erased all its losses because of the war and then carried it to records. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 71 points, or 0.1%, as of 10:15 a.m. Eastern, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.5% lower after setting its own record.

Tesla dragged on the market and fell 4.3% even though it reported better results for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Investors may be focusing instead on Tesla’s increased forecast for spending this year, as it builds factories to make robots and other products.

“You should expect to see a very significant increase in capital expenditures,” Elon Musk told investors late Wednesday, “but I think well justified for a substantially increased future revenue stream.”

ServiceNow dropped even more, 16.2%, even though its results for the latest quarter matched analysts’ expectations. The company has been under pressure, along with much of the broad software industry, because of worries that rivals powered by artificial-intelligence technology could undercut its business.

Analysts said investors may have also been underwhelmed by its forecast for a declaration in growth for an important measure of revenue.

Texas Instruments helped limit Wall Street’s losses after breezing past analysts’ expectations for profit in the latest quarter. CEO Haviv Ilan said the semiconductor company is benefiting from growth led by industrial and data center customers, and it gave forecasts for profit and revenue in the spring that cleared analysts’ estimates.

The 16.6% leap for Texas Instrument’s stock was the strongest single force pushing upward on the S&P 500.

In the oil market, prices swung higher as uncertainty continues about what will happen with the Strait of Hormuz. A ceasefire is still in place between the United States and Iran, but oil tankers aren’t able to get through the narrow waterway off Iran’s coast to exit the Persian Gulf and reach customers.

The U.S. military on Thursday seized another tanker associated with the smuggling of Iranian oil, ratcheting up the standoff a day after Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guards took control of two vessels in the strait. President Donald Trump also said Thursday he ordered the U.S. military to “shoot and kill” small Iranian boats that deploy mines to gum up traffic in the strait.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, rose 1% to $102.97 after bouncing between roughly $101 and $106 overnight. It’s unclear whether U.S.-Iran peace talks, previously hosted by Pakistan, would resume anytime soon.

South Korea’s Kospi climbed 0.9% after the government reported better-than-expected economic growth for the start of the year, boosted by strong exports, particularly of computer chips used in the AI boom. Semiconductor supplier SK Hynix said its revenue for the latest quarter jumped more than analysts expected largely because of AI-related demand.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury edged down to 4.29% from 4.30% late Wednesday.

A report in the morning said slightly more U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week, but the number is still at a historically healthy level. A separate, preliminary report on U.S. business output from S&P Global also suggested growth is improving a bit from its near-stagnation seen in March.

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AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed to this report.